Lawyer: Doctors afraid to be critical of DeBakey

The doctors who testified for famed surgeon Michael DeBakey would not criticize his medical treatment of the patient suing him for fear of hurting their careers, the man's lawyer said Tuesday.

But DeBakey's lawyer countered during closing arguments that aneurysm surgery saved dentist Alexander Overweg's life and that Viagra allows him to still have sex.

Jurors in state District Judge Joseph "Tad" Halbach's court deliberated for three hours Tuesday and will resume doing so today.

Overweg said DeBakey, his former dental patient, had failed to warn him that the surgery at Methodist Hospital on Dec. 18, 1995, might leave him impotent.

Overweg, 70, of Nassau Bay, also said DeBakey concealed a radiologist's report that corrected an earlier erroneous conclusion that the aneurysm had doubled in size.

Overweg's lawyer, R.K. Hansen, said no doctor from Methodist Hospital or elsewhere who testified would question DeBakey's decisions.

"Anybody who disagrees with Michael DeBakey is risking professional suicide," Hansen said.

DeBakey, 92, obtained Overweg's consent by telling him that the aneurysm had doubled in size and was life-threatening, Hansen said.

Even months after the operations, he said, DeBakey insisted that the aneurysm had doubled in size. Expert witnesses said the aneurysm did not come close to doing so.

The claim that the aneurysm doubled "is a blatant lie," Hansen said. "(DeBakey) thought he could bluff (the Overwegs) because he was Michael DeBakey."

The surgery, Hansen said, left Overweg impotent.

DeBakey's attorney, Robert Swift, said DeBakey was not required to tell Overweg that the surgery might leave him impotent, because impotence has not been a serious risk since advances in aneurysm operations two decades ago.

DeBakey was right to recommend the surgery because Overweg's type of aneurysm is "a time bomb," Swift said. "The only cure is surgery."

Impotence is a nonissue, he said, because "with the benefits of Viagra, he can have normal intercourse."

Swift said the four to six beers that Overweg drank daily, his cigarette smoking, uncontrollable blood pressure and hypertension might have caused his impotence.

DeBakey saved Overweg's life by operating on his colon cancer in 1992 and again in 1995, when he performed the aneurysm operation, Swift said.

"It doesn't surprise me that (Overweg) has Dr. DeBakey's autographed picture on the wall," he said, "and had no plans to take it down."

Swift said DeBakey had no monetary motive, since he did the surgery for free as a professional courtesy to his then-dentist.